She said: “It was quite a shock because obviously I’d been on it for seven years. I’d grown up – that’s all I really remember being on EastEnders. And the day after I left I just sat at home doing absolutely nothing.”

“Patsy was like a second mum to me and she looked exactly like my mum so a lot of the time I got confused! I’ve been to her house so much I remember after EastEnders I’d spend the weekend with her and it was just like she was part of my life and it felt so weird when I left and she wasn’t there with me all the time.”

But Maisie, who is now doing her GCSEs, said adjusting to a normal teenage lifestyle following her departure wasn’t difficult.

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She said: “It didn’t feel that weird at the time because I’ve never really felt like I’ve been in the limelight. I’ve got my acting life, I’ve got my singing life and I’ve got my school life. So when I did leave, going back to school wasn’t a drastic change.”

Having wowed fans with her cover of JUSTIN BIEBER’s Let Me Love You on YouTube, Maisie now has a producer and has just launched debut single Good Thing.

Penned about a romantic relationship, it includes the lyrics: “I know what we got is worth fighting for. This love we found is what I’m looking for. We got a good thing. We got a good thing going baby.”

She said: “I’ve always wanted to make a cool pop record that people could relate to, dance to and feel good listening to. By teaming up with my producer Darren Martyn to make Good Thing, I feel like we achieved that. I am so excited to finally let people hear it!”

But she revealed she didn’t initially intend for her singing career to escalate.

She continued: “At the time I wasn’t that amazing at singing. I just liked it. After a while I felt like I was getting more and more comfortable with my voice and from then on I was singing and writing music all the time.”